Fatal Shot

Feng Luo’s vision was clear as soon as he saw through the Eye of Thunder’s scope.

Across the ground, Young Master Lin had a haughty expression in his eyes as he moved among the group heading towards the Level 40 area. He was turning his head sideways and was talking to a Fire Manipulator, the mature lady next to him.

Through the scope, Feng Luo watched Young Master Lin’s mouth and whispered back word by word: “We were lucky to have such an opportunity. Nevertheless, it was better to tell everyone to keep it secret. After all, we weren’t the first to hit the monsters…”

With his lip reading skills, he could analyze the intentions of his opponents even if they were 100 meters away.

Mu Zi was also observing with his telescope, and he raised his brows when he heard Feng Luo. “Brother Feng, what are you talking about? Why am I not understanding you?”

“I’m just telling you what Young Master Lin said!” Feng Luo answered as he continued to read Young Master Lin’s lips.

“Brother Feng, you must be kidding! It is impossible to hear clearly from such a distance, okay? Hmm… Did you install wiretaps on them? But players can’t install wiretaps on each other. And recon meters have anti-wiretapping functions…” Mu Zi’s expression was somewhat surprised and confused.

Feng Luo did not look at him. “I remember you served in the Federal Army,” he said. “Haven’t you ever heard of lip reading?” He watched on through the Eye of the Thunder as Young Master Lin continue to do his work. He had gotten enough information from this fellow’s words.

Mu Zi widened his eyes in surprise, and his voice was suddenly more than a dozen decibels louder. “Lip reading? No, I don’t think so…”

Feng Luo’s eyes were still fixated on Young Master Lin, but his ears were delighted to hear Mu Zi’s surprise. After all, this was one of his skills he was proud of. It was very difficult to master, and it required a certain amount of talent.

“Although lip reading is relatively obscure, honestly, Brother Feng, I do know about it. I read an article about the history of the army and saw that it was an outdated, low-end observation skill that has been obsolete for hundreds of years!”

Despite Mu Zi’s initial surprise, his second remark undoubtedly dealt Feng Luo a heavy blow.

Obsolete, low-end observation skills…

Feng Luo’s M110 shivered slightly, and his face was expressionless.

“The risk of error from this method of pure observation by the naked eye was too high,” continued Mu Zi. “Although the accuracy varies from person to person, in most cases, it would not exceed 50 percent, and learning it was a troublesome process… So the Federal Firearms Corporation developed long-range lip recognition technology. Any soldier equipped with standard tactical eyewear could easily analyze what people said beyond a kilometer away via the recognition chip. The overall rate of error was no more than 3 percent. So, this backward technique, lip reading, can only be seen in history books…”

Mu Zi held his head up and shared what he remembered as if reciting it straight from a textbook. Then he asked Feng Luo with an uncertain expression, “Brother Feng, am I right?”

“Yes! Absolutely!” Feng Luo said, remaining expressionless.

“Hmm. Brother Feng, could it be that you know lip reading?

“Nope!” Feng Luo said in a low voice. “Of course I don’t know a low-end skill that’s been obsolete for a century. I just want to use lip language to tell you that my the chip on my sniper rifle ran an analysis, and it says that your answer is… very good!”

“Oh!”

Mu Zi was silent. He seemed to have realized what he had done wrong. Why was Assistant Manager Feng so silent?

Feng Luo could not help but be amazed that the developments of science and technology had replaced all kinds of human functions gradually but completely. Compared to various kinds of high-tech tools, the only unique things that humans had were probably their brains, with thoughts and feelings. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

In fact, in the real world, the Star Federation had almost entered a stage where human beings could just focus on research and run all of society without obstacles by handing everything else over to the machines and AI. Materially, they could absolutely guarantee that any citizen could live a lifetime without lack of food, drink, and medical treatment even if they did nothing.

But in such a society, there were still many people who were working, something which had caught Feng Luo’s attention when he’d first arrived in this world. It took him some time to understand that most of the people working these jobs were actually afraid of doing nothing. Yes—afraid of doing nothing at all!

Humans, in fact, needed not only food and drink to live; most of them also needed spiritual “food,” like sense of achievement, identity, meaning of life, and so on. In a society where science and technology were so developed, like the Star Federation, any sense of achievement by the human beings has been reduced to the extreme. Technology had replaced human functions, and technology performed better.

It was said that the Star Federation had passed a bill to replace all human labor with intelligent machines in its early development. However, less than ten years later, the bill had been abolished. The initial and overwhelming rejoice of the majority ended with an overwhelming desire to abolish the bill.

Since then, the Star Federal Government had made an odd rule stating that companies working in any non-extreme environment must hire a certain number of human employees. That was why there were so many people in some of the big companies in the Star Federation. Even so, this could not really satisfy everyone. Or, to be exact, it could not satisfy everyone’s spiritual needs.

Until the appearance of War!

The reason War was so popular was not only the promotion of the entire populace of the Federation but also because players could find the meaning of life and experience a sense of achievement in this 100-percent realistic game. They could invoke one another’s envy and satisfy their own inner desires!

After all, in the game, the player’s role was not as inundated with high-tech weapons or smart machines as it was in reality. They could fully rely on their own Attributes, Skills, aircraft, warships, mechas, and other technological weapons to enjoy the process of fighting and the pleasure of destruction.

For this reason, even in the surveys, many players answered that they liked War the best. Perhaps, this was a protest of humans against the technology they themselves had created.

This incident aroused Feng Luo’s lament, but it did not prevent him from continuing to read Young Master Lin’s intentions from his lips. He shared the information he got from lip reading.

“They seem to have found a single Commander monster who escaped from Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group’s East Area. The players of the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group have dealt with the mob monsters, sparing only their Commander. Not long ago, their Scouts found the trail, and then they decided to pick it up. Moreover, since the Young Master Lin has the highest score in their team now, they decided to give him the final blow. When that happens, his ranking is going to take a huge leap. It could even reach the top 20!”

Mu Zi put down his military binoculars and slapped the floor beside him with an annoyed face. “Damn, their luck is so good! If that’s the case, it’ll be even harder for Brother Feng to catch up with Young Master Lin. In this ranking, Machine Gunners always have an unfair advantage!”

“Well, it isn’t really unfair. After all, each job has different roles.” Feng Luo’s eyes narrowed slightly as he suggested mischievously, “But who says that it must be their luck? Maybe… it’s our luck.”

“Brother Feng… are you planning to…?” Muzi’s face was puzzled at first. Then his eyes widened as he thought of the possibilities.

Feng Luo put down his M110 and turned to Mu Zi. “No one owns any of the monsters here in the ruins. Finders keepers. They’ve just stolen our kill and bad-mouthed me. It seems like the perfect sweet revenge, don’t you think?”

“Certainly! But didn’t you say that revenge is best served cold?” Mu Zi’s face was excited but a bit doubtful.

“Well, I’m not too picky about my revenge.” Feng Luo looked back at him, then quickly packed up the things on the ground, ready to go down and track the other party’s team.

“Eek!” Mu Zi was struck dumb for a while, apparently not expecting Feng Luo to answer so simply. He hurried to pack up his things and follow him.

Although he was happy with the plan, Mu Zi was also a little worried. “But Brother Feng,” he said, “they are many and strong. If we are caught stealing their kill, it may not end well.”

“Do you know how snipers steal kills?” Feng Luo asked as he walked.

(PS: The conflict between technological progress and human spiritual needs is merely conjecture. Please don’t argue with me on this.)